‘‘Really?’’ said Drew. ‘‘Your brother’s in the FBI too?’’
‘‘He’s a professor of art history at Brown,’’ he said.
Drew nodded. ‘‘Less stress, I guess.’’
‘‘Yes, I couldn’t handle the politics in academia,’’ said Jacobs.
They all chuckled.
‘‘So,’’ said Merrick, looking from Diane to Kingsley, ‘‘Drew and I are open to any suggestions you have on where to start looking for Clymene. You guys seem to know her inside out, so to speak.’’
‘‘Diane and I have been discussing that,’’ said Kingsley. He nodded toward her as if yielding the floor.
‘‘Clymene and her sisters may or may not be in our databases. But we can search for a relative,’’ said Diane.
‘‘If we don’t know who she is, how the heck are we going to find a relative?’’ said Drew.
‘‘By looking for a close match of her DNA in the various databases we have access to. Instead of an exact match, look for anyone with alleles in common,’’ said Diane. ‘‘We might get lucky and one of our databases will contain the DNA profile of a cousin or other relative. They could tell us who she really is.’’
‘‘I guess the whiz kid over here can manage that,’’ said Drew.
‘‘We can fax or e-mail her photo to estate and family lawyers,’’ continued Diane. ‘‘Clymene’s husbands that we know about were wealthy men. One of those kinds of lawyers is likely to have met her. That might lead to her identity and give us clues to other victims.’’
‘‘Great idea, but do you know how many lawyers there are in the country? Even pared down to estate lawyers, that’s a lot of e-mails and faxes.’’ said Merrick.
‘‘I know it is,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Maybe we can think of a way to pare it down even more.’’
‘‘Her mug shot isn’t that good,’’ said Garnett.
‘‘We don’t want to use that anyway,’’ said Diane. ‘‘These lawyers are people who don’t normally deal with criminal cases. They have chosen to associate with wealthy clients who don’t get into that kind of trouble. They would probably dismiss her mug shot out of hand, thinking that it couldn’t possibly be anyone they would know. We need to get one of the photos the media took of her coming out of court— where she was dressed up and looked the part she was playing.’’
Merrick nodded. ‘‘Okay. I’m buying all of this. What else?’’ he said.
‘‘This is a little more’’—Diane searched for the right word—‘‘a little more Hail Mary. Get someone in linguistics to analyze her core vocabulary if we can find any recordings of her voice. We can check with the prison —’’
‘‘What do you mean her core vocabulary?’’ asked Garnett.
‘‘Body part words, colors, action verbs—the words she would have learned first as she learned to speak. Her early use and pronunciation of those words would be heavily influenced by the region of the country in which she lived and what kind of environment she lived in. Some of the words might have retained hints of her original accent. The linguist can also look at her journal writing in her scrapbooks and any other writing samples we can find.’’ Diane shrugged. ‘‘It might lead to where she’s from, even though her accent will have changed over the years. Clymene speaks fluent French and Spanish. I think she may have lived abroad. That would change her accent. As I said, this one’s more of a long shot.’’
Merrick knitted his brow and shook his head. ‘‘If this woman is as chameleon as you say, hell, she could have dyed her hair black and gone to work somewhere as an illegal.’’
Diane nodded. ‘‘She’s accomplished at many things, which gives her many choices.’’
‘‘Shoot,’’ said Drew, ‘‘she could be working here as one of your tour guides.’’
Diane laughed, then stopped. ‘‘Damn.... Not her, but one of her sisters. Damn.’’
Chapter 34
All eyes were on Diane as she sat lost in thought, trying to remember everything that Karalyn had told her about Bobby Banks.
‘‘What?’’ said Garnett. ‘‘Are you telling me that one of them is here? Where?’’
‘‘I’m not sure,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Agent Kingsley and I were both drugged, and it apparently happened here in the museum restaurant. When I went to interview our waitress I found that our drinks were actually filled by another waiter, who didn’t show up for work the next day. He was described as being pretty for a male. I was just wondering if it could be one of Clymene’s sisters, or Clymene herself in disguise.’’
‘‘Surely they wouldn’t be that bold,’’ said Neva.
‘‘Is it really that easy for a woman to pass as a man?’’ asked Garnett.
‘‘Not easy, but it’s been done. It’s easier for a woman to pass as a boy. The wait staff are young, some just out of high school,’’ said Diane.
‘‘That would be bold on her part,’’ said Kingsley.
‘‘What’s the waiter’s name?’’ asked Garnett.
‘‘Bobby Banks, and he apparently lives in the woods. At least that’s where his address puts him.’’ ‘‘In other words, he gave a false address,’’ said Garnett. ‘‘I’ll go talk to your staff.’’
‘‘Ask them if he had an Adam’s apple,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Guys over fourteen have them; women don’t.’’
‘‘Always?’’ asked Garnett.
‘‘Nothing’s always. But in the great majority of cases,’’ said Diane.
